Carl Schurz's Contribution to the Lincoln Legend
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Volume 18 No 1 • Spring 2009 Carl Schurz’s Contribution to the Lincoln Legend Cora Lee Kluge LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, LC-5129 CONGRESS, OF LIBRARY LC-9301 CONGRESS, OF LIBRARY Carl Schurz, undated Abraham Lincoln, 1863 mong all the works about of approximately 22,000 words is INSIDE Abraham Lincoln that too long to be a book review and are currently available at the same time surprisingly short Ain this Lincoln bicentennial year, for the well-respected assessment • MKI 25th Anniversary including both new titles and new of Lincoln and his presidency that Banquet and Conference editions of older titles, one contri- it has become. It was republished • Letters of a German in bution that catches our attention repeatedly between 1891 and 1920 the Confederate Army is an essay by Carl Schurz that first and several times since, includ- • Citizens and Those Who appeared in 1891. Written origi- ing at least three times in German Leave, Book Review nally as a response to the Atlantic translation (1908, 1949, 1955), and • Rembering Robert M. Bolz Monthly’s request for a review of now has appeared in new editions • Racial Divides, Book Review the new ten-volume Abraham Lin- (2005, 2007, and twice in 2008), coln: A History by John G. Nicolay and John Hay (1891), this essay Continued on page 11 DIRECTOR’S CORNER Greetings, Friends Our online course “The German- diaries of the Milwaukee panorama American Experience,” a joint project painter F. W. Heine. Second is the and Readers! of the Wisconsin Alumni Asso- project entitled “Language Matters ciation, the Division of Continuing for Wisconsin” (Center for the Study Studies, and the Max Kade Institute, of Upper Midwestern Cultures, MKI, pring is here—almost—and is in full swing. We were led to and a group of UW linguists), which we are looking forward to a believe that we might get about 20 has received a three-year Ira and number of events that are right students, but to everyone’s amaze- Ineva Reilly Baldwin/Wisconsin Idea Saround the corner. First on the list is ment 51 have enrolled! The course grant to explore language in four our conference entitled “Excursions features lectures by Kevin Kurdylo, Wisconsin communities as it relates in German-American Studies,” the Joe Salmons, Jim Leary, Mark Loud- to historical and current immigra- capstone event in our year-long MKI en, Antje Petty, and me, and while it tion and questions of identity. 25th anniversary celebrations, which has been a challenge, as well as a lot And finally, please don’t forget to will take place on April 1–3 at the of work, it is thrilling to see all the mark your calendars for our annual Memorial Union on the University enthusiasm for German-American Friends meeting and dinner, which of Wisconsin-Madison campus. The topics. It has also been a chance for is being held this year on May 2nd in program announcement is now us to learn about teaching in the Beaver Dam. Further information on our MKI Web site, and printed digital age, as the production of our about this event will be ready soon: announcements will have arrived in course involves some of the most please watch our Web site and check your mailbox even before you receive modern methods and technology. your mail. We know that you will this Spring issue of the MKI Friends Meanwhile, the MKI is pleased to enjoy this Saturday in the company Newsletter. We have reserved a large announce that a couple of our joint of your Friends. venue at the Memorial Union for the projects have received funding and Until we see you again: may you banquet on the evening of April 1; are moving ahead with work. First of enjoy hard work, good success, and and we hope to have a full house for all is the Heine Project (Milwaukee happiness with the assignments that the two featured presentations: an County Historical Society, Museum come your way. address by Ambassador Dr. Klaus of Wisconsin Art, and MKI), which —Cora Lee Scharioth of the Federal Republic of has received one year’s worth of Germany entitled “Why the German- financial support from the Lynde American Relationship Matters,” and and Harry Bradley Foundation the conference keynote address by in Milwaukee and will be able to Professor Emeritus Jost Hermand proceed with the transcription of the of the UW-Madison Department of German entitled “Forced Out of Hitler’s Reich: Five Eminent Madisonians.” Please send in your The Newsletter of the Friends of the Max Kade Institute for German-American Studies is reservations by March 20th! After the published quarterly at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Submissions are invited and should be sent to: banquet come two days of morning and afternoon conference sessions, Kevin Kurdylo with presentations by a distinguished Friends of the Max Kade Institute for German-American Studies group of scholars representing vari- 901 University Bay Drive, Madison, WI 53705 Phone: (608) 262-7546 ous disciplines and approaches to the Fax: (608) 265-4640 field of German-American studies. [email protected] We have come so far, we appreciate your support, and we know you will mki.wisc.edu maxkade.blogspot.com find our program quite appealing. 2 CAPSTONE EVENTS OF THE MAX KADE INSTITUTE’S 25TH ANNIVERSARY YEAR Banquet Excursions in German-American Studies International Conference and Public Discussion Wednesday, April 1, 2009 Thursday and Friday, April 2-3, 2009 5pm Memorial Union Memorial Union University of Wisconsin, Madison University of Wisconsin-Madison free and open to the public, no registration required Registration required Thursday, April 2 9 AM morning session Special Address by America and Her Immigrants: Ethnicity, Policy, Ideas Ambassador Dr. Klaus Scharioth, • Cora Lee Kluge, opening remarks (Max Kade Insitute) Federal Republic of Germany • Walter Kamphoefner (Texas A&M University) “Why the German-American • Daniel J. Tichenor (University of Oregon) Relationship Matters” • Hartmut Keil (University of Leipzig) 3PM afternoon session Keynote Address by German-American Language and Literature Professor Emeritus Jost Hermand • Daniel Nützel (University of Regensburg) Department of German, • Lorie A. Vanchena (University of Kansas) UW-Madison “Forced out of Hitler’s Reich: Friday, April 3 Five Eminent Madisonians” 9AM morning session Limited Seating Creating the American Myth Please Register Early • Hugh Ridley (University College Dublin) • Barbara Groseclose (Ohio State University) Fill out the registration form • Kathleen Neils Conzen (University of Chicago) you received in the mail or print 2PM afternoon session out a form from the MKI Web site. Learning From Each Other Mark you meal choice and return • Uwe Lübken (Ludwig Maximilian University, Munich) with payment of $29 per registration • Louis A. Pitschmann (University of Alabama) to • PANEL DISCUSSION : University of Wisconsin Faculty Friends of the Max Kade Institute For a detailed program, including titles of presentations and speakers, please Attn. Banquet consult the Max Kade Institute Web site. 901 University Bay Drive Madison, WI 53705 Board of Directors The Friends of the Max Kade Institute Peter Arvedson Elm Grove Hans Werner Bernet Monroe Elizabeth Greene Madison Charles James Madison Cora Lee Kluge ex officio, Madison Ed Langer President, Hales Corners Tom Lidtke West Bend Fran Luebke Brookfield Peter Monkmeyer Asstistant to the Treasurer, Madison Antje Petty ex officio, Madison Karyl Rommelfanger Secretary, Manitowoc Greg Smith Treasurer, Beaver Dam Don Zamzow Vice President, Wausau 3 Dear Miss Lenora: The Letters of a German on June 1, 1861 for a term of twelve months, and it immediately moved Soldier in the Confederate Army north into Virginia to help protect the entrance to the strategic James Karyl Enstad Rommelfanger River. In his book, Magin argues that German immigrants were looked upon with suspicion in the South and thus not eager to fight for the Confederacy. Those Germans most likely to fight for the South, Mahin asserts, were either economically dispossessed or members of the middle class who had achieved a modicum of success in the South. The former feared abolition would lead to competition for jobs, and the latter worried they could lose the support of slaveholders, upon whom they were dependent. Jews, however, were a group that willingly served the Confederacy, according Robert N. Rosen’s ground-breaking monograph The Jewish Confeder- t is well known that thousands and then on to Mecklenburg County ates (Columbia, S.C.: Univ. of South of immigrants fought in the in North Carolina in 1861, where he Carolina Press, 2000). They had long Civil War on the side of the worked at the Rock Island Woolen lived in southern states, and were INorth, many in regiments of their Mill. highly regarded for their educational own ethnic groups, but modern When the Civil War began, slaves background and business savvy. Thus readers are less familiar with the represented 40 percent of Meck- the German Jew Liebermann writes: story of immigrants who fought for lenburg County’s and 30 percent “I have dwelled for years in the north the South. Siegmund Carl (Charles) of the entire state’s population; and and never found rest till … I took up Liebermann was one of approxi- North Carolina contained both pro- my residence in the genial south.” mately 5,000 German-born Con- northern and pro-southern sympa- Among those left behind at the federate soldiers, an estimate given thizers. The state seceded from the Rock Island Woolen Mill was a viva- by Dean B. Mahin in The Blessed Union only after Lincoln had called cious young woman named Frances Place of Freedom: Europeans in Civil up 75,000 troops in response to the Lenora Davis. Because she was popu- War America (Washington, D.C.: attack on Fort Sumter; it was the last lar at the factory, Liebermann did Brassey’s, 2002).